"Defending New Hampshire Public Education" provides resources for citizens concerned about New Hampshire education.

The most interesting articles in each section are shown in the menu but there are normally many more articles under the main heading (except that all the New Hampshire legislation is shown). You can page down through those or just do a search to find what you are interested in.

DNHPE Update: Time to communicate! 1/30/12

To everyone - especiallyteachers, school board members, school administrators and parents,

Here, below, are some communications from the last several days. Communicating works and we need 10 times this number, coming from every direction.

To those who know our public schools best

Public school folks can make a big difference here. Our schools are under assault. Testifying is important, as many have done. Talking with legislators is important. But its time to go beyond that. The people of New Hampshire need to hear from you and benefit from your insight on the impact of this legislation, an insight the rest of us don't have.

People need to hear directly, authoritatively, about the impact of legislation that puts each parents directly in charge of every element of their students' course work (HB 542, passed) and would give full high school credit for Lawn Mowing 101 (HB 1575) or move all curriculum authority to the Legislature (HB 219, passed the House) or take many millions of dollars out of the public schools and put it into private schools (HB 1607 and SB 372)

Two immediate proposals: First and most obvious, it's OpEd's and letters to the editors in all the papers you can reach. Joe Onosco showed how you can reach every big paper in the state if you try (look here, scroll down). The Defending New Hampshire Public Education web site has all the info you need but there's a lot of it, so if you want help winnowing, let me know.

Second, I would like to make little one-on-one video interviews of teachers, school boards members, administrators or parents talking about these issues as you see them. Any time, any place. I'd put them on the web site. I know that feels like a kind of unwelcome exposure, and most don't feel it's their place. It's not a matter of self-interest. And it's not a matter of how much you know about the legislation. We'd talk ahead about that so that you can talk about the impact on your school.

The interviews would be very powerful in giving people a sense of the realities of this legislative assault. And, have no doubt, this is for all the marbles.

Last 3 days in the Portsmouth Herald

The Herald has been particularly strong in covering this legislative assault.

I know most of you aren't on Twitter. Don't resist. Realize that, at some point, you're going to do it! Do it now. Follow me (@billduncan). You'll soon see many others that you can keep track of with little effort.

Here are my tweets from the last few days (mine always lead to clickable links). See what you're missing?